Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: It doesn't take long to pick up on Harold GroBkopf's progressive and krautrock roots. Born in Hildesheim as his homeland began picking up the charred postwar ruins, his oeuvre to date includes a stint in a 1960s beat group, The Stuntmen, and then a spell playing with then-unknown heavy rockers, Scorpions, before joining Wallenstein and Ashra as drummer, and getting in on several of Klaus Schulze's solo efforts. Strom betrays much of that heritage, straddling the fine line between electronica and rock, setting out its stall in a hinterland sound that's really neither nor. At times it glitters, in other moments it grinds, sometimes its beguiling, then it's more charming, in a strange, well-left-of-the-middle kind of way. An enigmatic collection of work from a true musical enigma.

Review: Midway through the last decade, Bureau B reissued a kosmiche curiosity from cult synthesiser composer Rudiger Lorenz, Southland - a set inspired by idle daydreaming about the island nations of the southern pacific and the south Atlantic. Here, they return to the late artist's catalogue, presenting their pick of the music featured on the DIY tapes and records he self-released (usually in very small quantities) between 1981 and '83 - IE the period before Southland was recorded. Larger darker and moodier than that set, Lorenz delivers a synthesizer-heavy musical blend of contemporaneous influences that consistently delivers the goods. Our picks of a very strong bunch include the sparse and warped 'Chabomilla Sabinae', the Tangerine Dream-esque beauty of 'Dreaming of Saba', the electronic ambience of 'Independence' and the star-gazing drift of 'Anigre'.

Review: We're not sure any of us would have predicted that there would be a new Propaganda album in 2024 - after all, it has been 40 years since they made their debut, and almost 20 years since 'principle song writers' Ralf Dorper and Michael Mertens last got together to record an album. Simply titled Propaganda, the album is undoubtedly a triumphant return - a set that recalls the ground-breaking brilliance of their earliest work. Sure, some of the synthesisers and sonics have been updated - it's not quite as cold and icy as their earliest explorations - and there are subtle rhythmic nods to more contemporaneous dance rhythms, but the results are uniformly excellent. For proof, check the throbbing headiness of 'Purveyor of Pleasure', the alt synth-pop bubble of 'Tipping Point', and the atmospheric excellence of 'Love:Craft'.

Review: Bureau B present the very latest full-length LP from art-synth auteurs Propaganda, aka. Ralf Dorper and Michael Mertens. Emerging almost two decades on from their last release, this record is nonetheless remarkable as it is their first and only self-titled record, suggesting a sense of culmination and timeliness - in Bureau B's words, Propaganda (the LP) explores "fresh sounds and styles, and (reflects) personal and societal changes since their last outing". The excesses and lacks of boom-bust capital exhaustion and planetary-systemic fatigue are heard in full sway here; both themes alloy themselves starkly against the understated EBM and dark synth influence that permeates the record, a sound otherwise distinctly connoted as 80s and retroistic. Through their crystal-clear productions - their techno-Arcadian visions in composition, and passionate lyrical musings on machinic desire by way of collaborators Thunder Bae and Hauschka - Propaganda synthesise a yet new subliminal message, one that charts a line out of the past and into the present.

Review: Paris-based Detlef Weinrich aka Tolouse Low Trax is back with a new collection, Kiosque Versions, that he has assembled himself and which takes in seven edits of his work (some big hits, some lesser known or overlooked tunes) by friends and treasured artists. Things kick off with his own edit of 'Subghosts' which is a dubby swagger, and the Grim Lusk dub version of 'Mik In Water' is also filled with delayed stabs and warm, dubby undercurrents. 'Rushing Into Water' (Joakim Elemental edit) has a tropical dub feel and liquid rhythm, 'Tristeros Empire' (Ido Plumes Blazer Quest mix) has train track-like percussion over jittery experimental beats and there are many more freaky delights besides.

Review: Detlef Weinreich's latest release as Tolouse Low Trax is something of a curio, albeit one that's predictably impressive and off-kilter. It's a compilation that boasts some of his own cuts, alongside edits and reworks by friends of tracks described by Bueau B as "hits that never took the charts by storm". Check first 'Subghosts (Tolouse Low Trax Rework)', a bizarre but brilliant fusion of modular electronics and head-nodding organic instrumentation, before admiring the sparse, hard-to-pigeonhole electronic experimentation of Simo Cell's edit of 'A Song and a Photo Novella', the Autechre-esque beats of 'Down Is Temporal (Beat Detectives Dawn Rerub)', and Joakim's club-ready revision of 'Rushing Into Water'. Further inspired excursions are provided by Ido Plumes (the throbbing techno psychedelia of 'Tristoeros Empire') and Froid (the trippy IDM digi-dub of 'Make Friends').